Leah Bray Nichols, owner of Evergreen Yoga, leads Tom Cunningham through a series of yoga movements to help him manage his pain. Nichols has partnered with massage therapist Lorrie Garcia to treat certain clients together.

"It is not a passive process," Leah Nichols says of treating pain patients like Tom Cunningham. "The person has to want to take charge."

After seeking medical help to no avail, she decided to take her husband's advice and give yoga a try.

"Lo and behold, it helped," she said.

Yoga led to massage therapy, and she now has some control over her pain.

"I am in no way pain free, but when I have pain, now I know what to do with it," said the 58-year-old licensed social worker. "Now I know that when I'm not doing well, I know what I'm doing wrong and I can stop doing that and do something more productive."

While her husband encouraged her to try yoga, it was her yoga instructor, Leah Bray Nichols (no relation), owner of Evergreen Yoga in Midtown, who encouraged her to incorporate massage into her routine.

"Lorrie and I started working with people dealing with chronic pain more and more, and we would refer clients to each other, until we started working together on some clients and started to get good results," she said.

Now the two meet once a week on average to discuss their shared clients' needs, with the clients' permission.

The results they've experienced working together have inspired the two to conduct a free panel discussion on pain management Tuesday at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library.

"The National Institutes of Health is saying that the No. 1 reason people seek out care is because of pain," said Leah Nichols, 41. "We realized a lot of people are suffering from chronic pain and don't know about alternative treatments available to them."

"We were getting clients who had had every test under the sun, seen all kinds of doctors and specialists, and couldn't find a solution to what was causing their pain. We would start to work with these clients, helping them become more aware of where their pain was, their postural holding patterns and the emotional ties it has, so that they were able to undo the patterns themselves," said Garcia, 41. "We were getting feedback that they had never heard about the kind of work we were doing and that they never knew it was possible to do the work themselves."

The client's active participation is crucial.

"It is not a passive process," Leah Nichols said. "The person has to want to take charge. They have to be willing to devote their time and energy to caring for themselves."

A proactive approach offers benefits on an emotional level as well.

"Where they felt they were only at the mercy of their pain, now they have a sense of control," she said. "It's amazing how much mindfulness can transform a person's experience of pain."

Garcia worked with Debbie Nichols to loosen the muscles she was using improperly, including those in her right shoulder and thigh. Leah Nichols then taught her how to hold them correctly with certain yoga stretches and postures.

"Working together, they accomplished a lot for me," Debbie Nichols said. "I think they complement each other beautifully."

Albright, 39, who offers art therapy at the Experiential Healing Center to patients who have experienced trauma, says pain management works on many levels.

"You have to treat the whole person. It's about the full picture -- mind, body and spirit," she said. "A lot of times you are dealing with emotional pain, which physical pain can result from. And physical injury can cause depression and anxiety. The things we hold in our bodies, like stress, can cause a tremendous amount of pain."

"Memphis drastically needs this," Albright continued. "So many people in Memphis are used to only the traditional Western medical approach, which is great and wonderful, but there are other options out there. You have to treat the whole person. We are emotional beings."

"I believe in the body's infinite ability to change," Garcia said. "We want to empower people to on their own discover the source of their pain and deal with it. We are all so busy in our everyday lives that we don't focus on what we are feeling in our bodies. Until we focus on that, we have no choice in what we can do about it."

"I did not have to have back surgery. That was my greatest relief," Debbie Nichols said. "I'm surprised someone hasn't thought of doing this panel sooner."

More information

The panel discussion at 6 p.m. Tuesday is free and open to the public. A short discussion by the panelists will be followed by a question-and-answer format.